This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti took a $200,000 loan from a company affiliated with a real estate developer he had given minor assistance in getting approval to erect lucrative billboards.

The 2007 loan was made by a company, Tradesea International, for which developer Mac Champsee serves as vice-president. In 2004 and 2006, Mammoliti had put forward routine community council motions in favour of Champsee’s applications for Highway 401 billboards on a Wilson Ave. property in Mammoliti’s York West ward.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti took a $200,000 loan from a company affiliated with a real estate developer he had helped get approval to erect lucrative billboards. (BERNARD WEIL / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)

“I don’t see any obvious violations of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act nor the Code of Conduct,” said Catherine Lyons, a municipal lawyer at Goodmans. “I don’t think he did anything illegal, but I do think he would have been doing a better service to his constituency in the interest of transparency if he had disclosed it.”

Mammoliti refused to answer questions from a Star reporter on Friday morning. In a written statement, he said the loan was “of a personal business matter.” He said “to the best of my knowledge” it has been paid in full, with interest.

Article Continued Below

“While I accept challenges about my decision making as a councillor, to blatantly issue a story that has no relevance to my job and involves my family and personal relationships I find to be in very poor taste. I respectfully request to leave my personal dealings and my family out of the media,” he said.

Billboards near major highways can generate tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue per year. Mammoliti said he has supported “hundreds” of signs in his career and that these signs contributed to the “revitalization” of his community.

Champsee’s daughter, Sonal Champsee, who works with him, said Thursday that he was travelling from India and not available for comment. But she said Mammoliti “wasn’t making payments” on the loan, which she said was a second mortgage on a small rental apartment building on Dynevor Rd. near Dufferin St. and Eglinton Ave. W., and that the building was foreclosed upon. The Star could not independently confirm this information.

She said her father did not promise Mammoliti help of any kind when he was pursuing his billboard applications. Mammoliti approached her father later, she said, and he had felt he was not able to say no to a request from a councillor.

“It wasn’t so much an explicit quid pro quo. On the other hand, as a developer, any sort of council issue is — you never want to be the guy who’s on somebody’s bad side,” Champsee said.

“It’s not necessarily that there was some nefarious agreement to do favours, but at the same time, if someone asks you for something and you say no, how do you look?”

She added: “I don’t think any developer wants to be in the position of having pissed off a councillor. I wouldn’t characterize it as anyone doing a special favour for anyone else, but certainly — down the road, you have no idea who you might deal with in council.”

Article Continued Below

The loan, which carried an interest rate of 12 per cent, was reported by CBC late Thursday afternoon.

Sonal Champsee said her father felt pressure simply because of Mammoliti’s position; Mammoliti did not explicitly or implicitly pressure him into helping with the loan, she said. She also said the decision to issue the loan was at least in part a profit-minded business decision. Mammoliti was charged a “reasonable” market rate for such a loan, she said.

“If I remember correctly, he was looking for my father’s help in arranging some financing. But second mortgages are trickier to get than first mortgages. And so we worked something out,” Champsee said.

“If we can make money on a market-value loan, then that’s fine. So that’s all it was. It would have been nice if payments had been made promptly. But that’s it, and I don’t think we’ve had any further dealings with Councillor Mammoliti either.”

There is no law against taking a loan from a developer. The city’s code of conduct for councillors prohibits “improper use of influence,” which is described as “the use of one’s status as a member of council to improperly influence the decision of another person to the private advantage of oneself.”

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said he personally would never accept a loan arranged through a developer.

“Even though they might not ask you for something, it’s the appearance of what’s going on that bothers me a bit,” Holyday said. “It doesn’t look right. There might be nothing wrong with what he’s done; I don’t know. It’s not for me to judge that. But my own standards wouldn’t permit that.”

Champsee is involved in several companies, the primary one of which is Rainbow Realty. His daughter said they focus on owning and managing rental apartments.

The CBC story said Mammoliti also took a $75,000 loan from a realtor connected to the same Wilson Ave. property.

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com